Devuan bug report logs - #510
Devuan-installer performs unnecessary rsync

Package: refractainstaller-gui; Maintainer for refractainstaller-gui is fsmithred <fsmithred@gmail.com>; Source for refractainstaller-gui is src:refractainstaller-gui.

Reported by: David Waring <davidwaring@ntlworld.com>

Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2020 19:03:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: fsmithred <fsmithred@gmail.com>

Full log


Message #5 received at submit@bugs.devuan.org (full text, mbox, reply):

Received: (at submit) by bugs.devuan.org; 7 Sep 2020 19:00:01 +0000
Return-Path: <davidwaring@ntlworld.com>
Delivered-To: devuanbugs@dyne.org
Received: from tupac3.dyne.org [195.169.149.119]
	by doc.devuan.org with IMAP (fetchmail-6.4.0.beta4)
	for <debbugs@localhost> (single-drop); Mon, 07 Sep 2020 19:00:01 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from know-smtprelay-omc-7.server.virginmedia.net (know-smtprelay-omc-7.server.virginmedia.net [80.0.253.71])
	(using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits))
	(No client certificate requested)
	by vm6.ganeti.dyne.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6E6DCF60A91
	for <submit@bugs.devuan.org>; Mon,  7 Sep 2020 20:56:59 +0200 (CEST)
Authentication-Results: vm6.ganeti.dyne.org;
	dkim=pass (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=ntlworld.com header.i=@ntlworld.com header.b="HnJExC7k";
	dkim-atps=neutral
Received: from [192.168.0.11] ([81.98.13.41])
	by cmsmtp with ESMTPA
	id FMK1kd9SRIUP9FMK1kwk3M; Mon, 07 Sep 2020 19:56:58 +0100
X-Originating-IP: [81.98.13.41]
X-Authenticated-User: julien.waring@ntlworld.com
X-Spam: 0
X-Authority: v=2.3 cv=Is0wjo3g c=1 sm=1 tr=0 a=UGDzctgAapw02BQ3XSSBWA==:117
 a=UGDzctgAapw02BQ3XSSBWA==:17 a=r77TgQKjGQsHNAKrUKIA:9
 a=11XWRs3gNPXMX9ojdHQA:9 a=QEXdDO2ut3YA:10 a=_W_S_7VecoQA:10
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=ntlworld.com;
	s=meg.feb2017; t=1599505018;
	bh=OxE1a4bkvaqLd4/5ZGpv3hVIfrlk+oUQSA3bC+n4O4Y=;
	h=To:From:Subject:Date;
	b=HnJExC7k3+YqaPte7KbVFcOpu1s5nl3VmmFN7ye1QKtUCqhK5xadOX3wbjg3a1Yv/
	 giCfXHA8G42dWa4rMNNxCtxdui9xBfbAL5qj6pYLxhxHJ1vHdYtzPaWIGGipzhSc/k
	 KDFQbMdqjYUjwUGm1K+DhZMNpVEnkchGISoO17e1TKRymUkScSD7NclA85rrM8Z2dL
	 okYDAIcWwg1N4fLgsDakb8zRrMdewfvXfqq1zfS4kA4dnq1hPnqqkUOOjnyLAfdNIs
	 Yp3Yrg2xBElizj97YSR27Xi4BIX34KhkDhglvflFLXKkuAC8cKtQ237uc7F/QB62nN
	 CRbr91aqXJLgQ==
To: submit@bugs.devuan.org
From: David Waring <davidwaring@ntlworld.com>
Subject: Devuan-installer performs unnecessary rsync
Message-ID: <78f1afdd-b062-79f0-3f85-ed08ba67efde@ntlworld.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2020 20:56:57 +0200
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/68.10.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="------------9668C2C7E7EF2320567088D1"
Content-Language: en-GB
X-CMAE-Envelope: MS4wfK/erU0DNW3dEilCTBr8S5Gog0iAwibDT+c6meQ2J6yhMwfckZQ3oe28I67iowDTBulbde7hDlC4B6A7hhfUIRVS91gtZ5U0aeNhRoo/3JAPItGWuI4S
 PmDt1FAu/VPCsTYzdEHbeTn8JUP2ZxKNCcNbidnewC2l7qdxa9OJ7G2AAURuHt2L706YI/mCdg/Csw==
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.2 required=5.0 tests=DKIMWL_WL_MED,DKIM_SIGNED,
	DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,DKIM_VALID_EF,HTML_MESSAGE,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,
	RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H2,SPF_PASS autolearn=disabled version=3.4.2
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on tupac3.dyne.org
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Package: refractainstaller-yad
Version: current
Severity: normal

Precis: On invoking the installer from liveUSB Desktop and selecting install options including /home, it then wastes several hours copying existing ~1TB home partition to itself using rsync

Background: I already had MintXFCE 20 and Lubuntu (LxQt 0.14.1) installed on /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda4 respectively with /home on /dev/sd6. I have had a number of problems with LxQt on Unbuntu and wanted to try Devuan so decided to overwrite LUbubntu with Devuan.
I created a liveUSB and booted into the desktop.
I launched "Install Devuan" and then I selected:
[x] Create separate /home partition
[x] Use existing swap partition instead of swapfile
[x] do not format partitions. I'll handle it myself

I left all other options at default.

I selected the first option since there is no "Use existing /home partition" This may have been my mistake but from the options and instructions on the web it is not obvious how to use your existing partition once the install has completed.
Having done this and followed all the prompts, I was somewhat alarmed to see it listing all the files in /home. I opened Thunar on some of the folders listed and became even more confused since nothing seemed to have changed. I opened a terminal, ran top and found that most of my processor power was occupied with 2 copies of rsync. Since I knew that if it was copying to another partition it would run out of space I waited for the crash. 3+ hours later it finished syncing all the files with themselves. A mesg about chroot came up and installer waited for me to respond before continuing.
It was then that I made my second mistake. I selected what I thought might be useful text to copy into this email. I pressed Shft+Ctrl+C  to copy the text and refractainstaller-yad exited along with the prmpt dialog.
At this point I have given up and decided to carry on using Mint until the Installer becomes more user friendly.

I am not sure exactly what was happening but I assume it rsynced some of /target-home to /target/target-home or vice versa (target-home being a temporary mountpoint of the existing /home partition). Having aborted with the accidental Shft+Ctrl+C ,the Devuan partition now contains an empty /home folder and a partial copy of the /home partition  in /target-home folder.
 

The install process for Mint is much more logical in that GParted lets you select which partitions are mounted at which mountpoints and you have to elect whether or not to format within GParted. In refractainstaller-yad most actions of GParted are inhibited.
 

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.


Devuan BTS -- Powered by Debian bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham,
1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson,
2005-2017 Don Armstrong, and many other contributors.

Devuan Bugs Owner <owner@bugs.devuan.org>.
Last modified: Thu Mar 28 13:37:01 2024;